Anderson House

As far as historic house museums go in DC, I think Anderson House is probably the best you can visit. First off, the tour is free, and being the first one in on a Saturday morning, I had my own private guided tour. Madeleine, my tour guide, was incredibly knowledgable about everything in the house. From an art and architecture standpoint, this is probably the most opulent historic house museum in DC, with beautiful furnishings and collections from all over the world that were bequeathed to the current owners of the house, the Society of the Cincinnati, meaning that the collection is in tact and original to the house. The Anderson’s family history is tied closely with that of the Society, meaning that anyone who has an interest in Revolutionary War, Civil War, U.S. — France relations, or U.S. Diplomatic History can find something to enjoy here. I highly recommend a visit!

I’m writing this review if you plan on doing an event here as far as your wedding or any event for that matter. For this place to be as pricey as it is you think you would get treated and respected just the same way for the price you pay ($$$). I was treated with so much disrespect that I can’t even describe the feeling. My fiancé and I loved the venue from the second we saw it for our wedding we booked the dated and wanted to sign the contract immediately when we went to see it. My fiancé took a work day off work to go the venue and sign the contract and give the event manager Glen the deposit check which is half of the full amount for the venue up front to secure our date and again sign the contract. My fiancé then asked Glen for a receipt, he said they don’t have receipt and could write it on a post-​it for him. My fiancé didn’t want that and asked him to email him something so we had proof and validation that all was okay; we received nothing for three days of proof of signed contract. Five weeks had went by and even the check had still not been taken out of our accounts my fiancé numerous of times had tried to reach out to Glen to see what the circumstances were as far as why the check had still not been deposited. We received no follow ups. I called one afternoon when luckily got off work early enough to cal them because they leave at 4pm. I spoke with the front desk who was extremely rude to me when I told her I didn’t want to go to Glen’s voicemail nor did I want his email because neither of those does he respond to. She continued to be rude and I asked her to deliver a hand written message from me. We then shortly after got a nasty email from Glen stating that his financial coordinator wasn’t in the office and wouldn’t be back till Monday and that if I am so unhappy with his service I can go look for a new venue and he can cancel our contract. I immediately called their office again and got Glen on the phone. I answered very politely and he started to scream at the top of his lungs that the event (my wedding) «was his event and not my event and that i need to understand that» he continued screaming and yelling at me and telling that my wedding isn’t my event it’s his and that I should look some where else if I am unhappy with his service of not being able to contact us when we have been trying to contact him. This man should not be in this industry at all for people to be spending $ 12,000 on a venue and to be treated with such disrespect I was extremely heart broken and upset. NO ONE SHOULD HOLD ANY EVEN AT THE ANDERSON HOUSE!

A hidden gem among the many large DC museums. Anderson House is a jazz age mansion full of ancient Asian artifacts as well as some Medieval European stuff. The tour is free and the guide we got was extremely knowledgeable about the property as well as the artifacts. If you have already been to all of the major museums, and are looking for something different and less crowded, I cannot recommend this more.

Very beautiful home in DuPont that is now a museum. The house and its furnishings are gorgeous. The tour is wonderful and led by well trained and well spoken docents. The tour is 30 – 60 minutes and is interesting. The opulence is grand in this old DC mansion. This tour is informative and a great activity in DuPont when you have an hour or two to spare.

Had a wonderful experience here at the Anderson house with two tour guides! I learned a lot about history and the purpose of the society as well as the lives of the andersons and what they did with this house. Its pretty cool to be able to see the inside of an amazing historical mansion.

I attended an evening event this spring, held at Anderson House. My experiences, recorded as pluses and minuses:
+ Beautiful space.
+ Nice back garden, which was fun to have drinks in.
+ The event itself was very nice.
Minuses:
— The docent who greeted me upon my arrival at Anderson House asked me to hang my coat in the house cloakroom. When I returned to the cloakroom at the end of the evening, my coat was gone.
— The museum staff monitoring the event insisted that my coat had been swapped for another similar (much cheaper) coat hanging in the closet, probably accidentally, by another event attendee. This made sense until I checked the pockets of the coat in question to see if there was a business card or anything in the pockets to identify the owner of the coat; I found a wad of receipts, three years old. This other coat hadn’t budged in a long time.
— The docent who’d asked me to hang my coat asked me for my contact information in case my coat turned up (she was actually quite helpful, despite the fact that she’d directed me to the cloakroom in the first place). I left my information with her.
Really big minus:
— When I contacted the head of events at Anderson House the following week, he replied, well, of course we’re not responsible if the company hosting the event opted to not have coat check (!), and thanks for contacting us, because of course we never have guest information after the event.
No acknowledgement that the museum staff were responsible for my loss of property.
No offer to write a check to replace my coat.
No response to my email reply, in which I asserted that I HAD left my information, and in which I shared the information I’ve detailed above.
(And no, my coat has not turned up among my fellow event attendees.)
TL;DR if you are planning to host an event at Anderson House, tell your guests to under NO circumstances leave their belongings in the cloakroom. And maybe consider a different venue.

Beautiful house. Our tour guide Larry was very knowledgeable. There was alot going on while we were here. 2 meetings and a wedding ceremony in other rooms, so it was kind of noisy. The tour lasted a little over an hour.

Great site for many public events. We came during a concert which was so beautiful and squeezed in house tour with knowledgeable docent. Quite an ornate home that is used for events now. Beautifully decorated murals and decorative pieces that give u sense of wealth during the time period.
Plus it’s free to tour such a spacious interior that u should visit esp during the concert events. Really thank u society for opening the doors to the public and giving us a glimpse of the splendor during this homes history

The most beautiful house I’ve ever seen… the tour was amazing and the volunteers are unbelievably friendly!
Be sure to visit here if ever in DC.

Absolutely stunning!!! A true hidden gem in DC that I will now be bringing all of my friends and family to see when they are visiting me!!! 100% recommend! Just check their hours to make sure they are open when you want to go. Ask any questions you want to get the guides talking because they will go into even more detail if you show interest.

Anderson house is so classy and exquisite. We were here on ⁹⁄₁₃ for a wedding and absolutely loved it! The historical artwork and sculptures were entertaining and the décor was as well. The outside/​garden area was very well kept and it shows how much effort goes into keeping this venue looking so pristine.

Giving it a 4 partly because hubby loved it so much and because our docent, Beth, was fantastic. Personally I’d had enough after the first 10 minutes of the tour. I love the history part of it but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything gaudier than this house. Thank God we don’t have that kind of money or hubby would have our house guilded like this one was.
Staff was great. We had to cut out at the trail end of the tour because we had a reservation for another tour. The woman manning the door was very gracious and have us perfect directions to our next location.
If you like gold and crystal, this is perfect for you. If you’re into American history, there’s some good stuff about that, just wear your sunglasses inside.

Mixed feelings.
Incredible building with great architecture and relics from the past, all around the globe. But also kind of a musty smell — I guess that comes from the house remaining in its original form, almost literally. Still, beautiful just the same!
Loved the free classical music upon entering. The tour was free so technically you can never go wrong with free. But boy was it long winded. It started off interesting but it moves at a snails pace and after a while, I recommend to go off on your own and see the rest of the place. Come back and they might be in the same room. I mean, there was nothing wrong with the tour guide, he mentioned some cool stuff and seemed personable, but just dives into some really obscure stuff so after a while, got bored.
Overall: I recommend. If the group is big enough, go off on your own if things start to get less interesting/​more obscure stuff is mentioned.

House is great; Tour is free; Tour guide was annoying and painful to listen to but if you want to see the house… then you just do it. This is the Society of Cincinnati headquarters which is a club limited to men membership only… however I never saw a single man at the house… everyone running the show there are women! How Ironic!

This place was awesome. We had a chance to see it during the Dupont Museum Walk 2013. The tours were extremely knowledgeable on the Laz’s family history and were readily available to talk despite the amount of traffic that was coming in and out of the house. The Laz’s family history was also quite interesting, given that the all of the men fought in basically all the American Wars dating back to the revolutionary. The house is filled with Chinese and Japanese art. This place is very good for the American History enthusiast as well as the normal every day crowd.

Trudge through the forrest of worn pathways and find your way towards the shining star known as Anderson House.
Off the beaten path for tourists and not well-​known to locals, Anderson House is to D.C. As Gatsby’s mansion was to West Egg.
The Beaux-​Art mansion was completed in 1905 and was billed as a «Florentine villa in the midst of American independence.» Once upon a time the Anderson’s were the most popular hosts in Washington and now millions of tourists walk by without knowing the history of the home or the Andersons. I was once part of that group.
In August, I was lucky enough to be part of a friend’s 50^th surprise birthday party that was hosted on the premises and I had a free, albeit limited, run of some parts of the home. For a moment I felt like Nick Carraway living vicariously through the life of a rich millionaire. I roamed the well-​manicured gardens while sipping champagne and for a moment, just a moment, I forgot I was in D.C. The house has French, Itallian, English and Japanese influences– so let it take you to whichever country calls your name.
I returned to Anderson House in February for the free concert series that, again, is not well-​known to the public. My second visit was during the day and it illuminated several architectural and artistic details that were not as visible at night.
A Florentine villa, a hidden gem, a Beaux-​Art beauty– call it what you will, but it’s a wonderful work of art.
Had the Great Gatsby been a Washingtonian, he might have won the girl with a pad like this. I’m just saying…
Link to free concert series:

I’d only walked past Anderson House a hundred times — never really knowing what it was. Thanks to a friend’s suggestion that we participate in the «Holidays Through History» tour, during which Anderson House was one of four historic homes in the Dupont and Georgetown areas to hold open houses, I finally visited this absolutely lovely building. Definitely a nice change of pace from many other DC activities, thus, I have to agree with other Unilocalers who call this opulent former residence one of DC’s hidden gems.

This is a hidden gem in DC — so nice that it is ignored by so many tourists. I made it here on a Friday afternoon off, and really enjoyed the tour. Be sure to check their website for hours, as they are limited.

Anderson house is definitely one of the best kept secrets of DC, but thanks to Unilocal the word is getting out. Anderson House is the HQ of the Society of the Cincinnati which is for descendants of the American and French officers of the Revolutionary War. Naturally, George Washington was the first President of the Society. You have to be a male to be a part of the Society, which is a bit of a downer! There are archives in the basement of the Anderson House if you would like to determine if one of your ancestors was an officer in the Rev. War.
Larz and Elizabeth Anderson left the house to the Society of the Cincinnati. They obviously had a significant amount of wealth to build such a beautiful mansion in DC. Larz was once ambassador to Japan and there is some beautiful Asian artwork in the house. One of the first rooms you enter has 17^th century (or older) choir stalls which is pretty cool. My favorite room was the French room with the ornate gold scrolled ceilings and silk tapestries. The house is only open 1 – 4 pm for tours and our tour did start 15 past the hour. It ended up being a private tour which was a nice and rare experience for DC attractions.
There are periodic free concerts here which I hope to check out in the future.

So cool! Thanks, Unilocal – this was such a great find!
A great museum to visit when you have some free time – don’t be intimidated by the fact you have to knock on the door to be let in. The tour is free, and it’s super informative without being boring. The docents really know their stuff.
Also? The house is beautiful! Well, I mean, it should be since it cost roughly $ 800,000 in 1905 to build. $ 800K in 1905! That’s craziness.
Anyways, the tours start a quarter pass every hour (I think), so if you show up at a random time (say, 1:45PM), you have the option of jumping in to the on-​going tour, or waiting until the next one. I chose to jump in, but it’s really up to you.

Cyndy’s Bottom Line: An interesting lesson of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Gilded Age Washington D.C.
I stumbled upon the Anderson house in an attempt to see something that is off the beaten path. We were surprised to see where it was located because we would often drive past and admire the beauty of the mansion and wondered about it’s history.
The guided tour was great. The docent provided a splendid look with interesting facts on the mansion, the furnishings, the owners and the society.
*After your visit go across the street to see the bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi.